The present invention relates to a sheet discharge apparatus to stack sheets with images thereon discharged from an image forming apparatus, such as a copier or printer, and an image forming apparatus with this sheet discharge apparatus, a sheet finishing apparatus that performs finishing process to stacked bundles of sheets and an image forming apparatus with this sheet finishing apparatus.
An apparatus that stacks sheets formed with images using an image forming apparatus, such as a copier or printer, onto a tray and to perform processes like aligning bundles of sheets stacked on the tray and to staple or punch holes into aligned sheet bundles, is well known.
However, in the conventional apparatuses, bending can develop in the sheet bundles, as shown in FIG. 26, when aligning the sheet S in the direction traversing the sheet transport direction by an aligning face 340 for moving the sheet S toward an aligning reference wall 341. Furthermore, as can be seen in FIG. 25, bending can develop in the sheet bundle when aligning the sheet bundle in the transport direction by an aligning belt 180 for moving the sheet bundle toward the reference wall 290. Still further, as can be seen in FIG. 27, when stapling a sheet bundle, the sheet bundle is lifted from the tray. Thus, sensors 30 and 31 for detecting the sheets on the tray are unable to accurately detect the presence of the sheet bundle which results in their erroneously detecting that the sheet bundle is not present based upon the signals from the sensors 30 and 31, regardless of whether or not there is a sheet bundle present on the tray.
In such cases, the sheets from the subsequent job are discharged to the tray while aligning the sheet bundle or while stapling to cause those sheets by the subsequent job to become mixed into and processed with the sheet bundle of the current job which has already been discharged to the tray. So there are problems that the sheets from the subsequent job are discharged while aligning the sheet bundle or while stapling, to thereby strike the aligning means or the stapler to cause jams, or to crease paper, or the machine determines that the sheets had been removed from the tray and a sheet removing jam has occurred which will then cause the entire apparatus to stop operation.
Thus, in view of the situations described above, an object of the instant invention is to provide a sheet discharge apparatus to alleviate the above defects, to prevent jams or creasing of paper by accurately detecting the presence of sheets on the tray and to eliminate unnecessary apparatus stops.
In order to attain the above objectives, the sheet discharge apparatus of the present invention is equipped with sheet storage means for receiving sheets, discharge means for discharging the sheets transported from an image forming apparatus to the aforementioned sheet storage means, sheet detection means for detecting the presence of sheets on the aforementioned sheet storage means, aligning means for aligning the sheets discharged to the sheet storage means and control means that ignores the detection result of the aforementioned sheet detection means when aligning by using the aforementioned aligning means.
In order to attain the above objectives, the sheet finishing apparatus of the invention is equipped with sheet storage means for receiving sheets, discharge means for discharging the sheets transported from image forming apparatus to the aforementioned sheet storage means, sheet detection means for detecting the presence of the sheets on the aforementioned sheet storage means, aligning means for aligning the sheets discharged to the sheet storage means, finishing means for executing the prescribed finishing process on a sheet bundle aligned by the aforementioned aligning means and control means that ignores the detection results of the aforementioned sheet detection means when aligning by using the aforementioned aligning means or finishing by using the aforementioned finishing means.
In order to attain the aforementioned objectives, in the sheet discharging apparatus of the invention, the above sheet detecting means outputs signals used in the control of the discharge of the sheets from the aforementioned image forming apparatus.
In order to attain the aforementioned objectives, in the sheet finishing apparatus of the invention, the above sheet detecting means outputs signals used in the control of the discharge of the sheets from the aforementioned image forming apparatus.
In order to attain the aforementioned objectives, in the sheet discharging apparatus of the invention, the above sheet detecting means outputs signals used in the control to stop either the image forming apparatus or the sheet discharging apparatus.
In order to attain the aforementioned objectives, in the sheet finishing apparatus of the invention, the above sheet detecting means outputs signals used in the control to stop either the image forming apparatus or the sheet discharging apparatus.
In order to attain the above objectives, the image forming apparatus of the invention is equipped with sheet storage means for receiving sheets, discharge means for discharging the sheets transported from an image forming apparatus to the aforementioned sheet storage means, sheet detection means for detecting the presence of the sheets on the aforementioned sheet storage means, aligning means for aligning the sheets discharged to the sheet storage means and control means for ignoring the detection results of the aforementioned sheet detection means when aligning by using the aforementioned aligning means.
In order to attain the aforementioned objectives, in the image forming apparatus according to the invention, the aforementioned sheet detecting means outputs signals used in the control of the discharge of the sheets from the aforementioned image forming apparatus.
In order to attain the aforementioned objectives, in the image forming apparatus according to the invention, the aforementioned sheet detecting means outputs signals used in the control to stop either the aforementioned image forming apparatus or the aforementioned sheet discharge apparatus.
In order to attain the above objectives, the image forming apparatus of the instant invention is equipped with sheet storage means for receiving sheets, discharge means for discharging the sheets transported from an image forming apparatus to the aforementioned sheet storage means, sheet detection means for detecting the presence of the sheets on the aforementioned sheet storage means, aligning means for aligning the sheets discharged to the sheet storage means, a sheet finishing apparatus comprising finishing means for executing a prescribed finishing process on a sheet bundle aligned by the aforementioned aligning means, and control means for ignoring the detection results of the aforementioned sheet detection means when aligning by using the aforementioned aligning means or finishing by using the aforementioned finishing means.
In order to attain the aforementioned objectives, in the image forming apparatus according to the invention, the aforementioned sheet detecting means outputs signals used in the control of the discharge of the sheets from the aforementioned image forming apparatus.
In order to attain the aforementioned objectives, in the image forming apparatus according to the invention, the aforementioned sheet detecting means outputs signals used in the control to stop the aforementioned image forming apparatus or the aforementioned sheet discharge apparatus.
The other objectives and features of the invention will be made clear by a detailed description below, according to the accompanying drawings.